comment

A man serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of two teenagers in the 1980s died Wednesday in prison.

Pedro Miranda, 61, died in the hospice unit at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, said state Department of Corrections Spokesman Andrius Banevicius.

Miranda was charged with the murders of Mayra Cruz, 13, and 17-year-old Carmen Lopez following an Innocence Project investigation in 2008 and DNA evidence matched evidence found at the crime scenes.

Cruz went missing in Hartford in 1987 when she did not come home from school. Her body was found a month later in a wooded area.

Lopez was found strangled to death in Hartford in 1988.

Miguel Roman, who was wrongly convicted for the slaying of Lopez, spent 20 years in prison until the Innocence Project investigation led to Miranda’s arrest.

Roman was released from prison in 2008 and awarded $6 million by the state.

Miranda was also the main suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Rosa Valentin who was last seen in 1986 with Miranda. Her body was never found and he was could not be convicted of her murder due to a lack of evidence.